We had winds of around 30 knots, with a swell of 2–3 metres and waves about a metre high near the shore. These are actually my favourite conditions for slalom: there’s always something going on and it never gets boring – quite unlike light winds and completely flat water. So personally, I was quite pleased that an AFF event was taking place in Calais under these conditions.
As well as slalom, I also ride the waves now and then, and one of the things I enjoy most is jumping high. In slalom, that’s not usually what we’re after, but in these conditions there was only one thing I wanted to do: jump! I spotted this wave, dropped back to pick up some speed, and headed straight for it to take off. Plus, I had a board and a sail that could take a fair bit of punishment, so I just gave it a go. As I took off, the wave was quite steep and threw me off balance as I climbed. So I decided to let go of the kit almost straight away. If I’d held on, I probably could have gone even higher with the wind, but the landing would have been much harder and I’d have risked damaging some of my kit. In the end, nothing broke, I had a real thrill and, above all, loads of fun! It was a really great AFF event in Calais with fantastic conditions. And a big thank you to the photographer who captured that moment!
